Blessings and Curses

Blessings and Curses
        All of us have our share ofsuffering and Christians are not exempted from them. We don’t welcome it but weseldom have much control. Father Henri Nouwen says:
        “It is an on going temptationto think of our lives as living under a curse. The loss of a friend, anillness, an accident, a natural disaster, a war, or any failure can make usquickly think that we are no good and are being punished. This temptation tothink of our lives as full of curses is even greater when all the media presentus day after day with stories about human misery.
        Jesus came to bless us,not to curse us. But we must choose to receive that blessing and hand it onto others. Blessings and curses are always placed in front of us. We are tochoose. God says, ‘Choose the blessings!’” (Bread forthe Journey, Sept 8)
       
        “To bless means to say goodthings. We have to bless one another constantly. Parents need to blesstheir children, children their parents, husbands their wives, wives theirhusbands, friends their friends. In our society, so full of curses, we mustfill each place we enter with our blessings. We forget so quickly that weare God’s beloved children and allow the many curses of our world to darken ourhearts. Therefore, we have to be reminded of our belovedness and remind othersof theirs. Whether the blessing is given in words or with gestures, in asolemn or an informal way, our lives need to be blessed lives.” (Breadfor the Journey, Sept 7)

We bless ourselves:
·         when we give thanks with agrateful heart.
·         when we listen to thequiet, inner voice that says good things about ourselves.
·         when we affirm ourselves and know that we have giventhe best of ourselves in whatever we have worked on.
·         when we shut out the loud,busy outer voice that says we are being punished.
We bless others:
·         when we speak goodthings about them and to them.
·         when we show by ourgestures that their presence is a joy to us.
·         when we reveal tothem their gifts, their goodness and their talents.
1. Our reactions immediately after an unpleasantevent happens
        Whenwe lose our job, when we have an abusive boss, when a car accident happens,when we are robbed, when we are seriously ill, when we have cancer, theimmediate question “Why?” emerges. “Why me?” “Why now?” “Why here?” “What haveI done wrong?” “Why am I being punished?” It is so difficult to live without ananswer to this “Why?” But, if we are too focused and obsessed with findingthe answers to these questions of the causes of these events, we are morelikely to end up being angry and bitter. Bitterness will turn us away fromGod and thus we curse ourselves.
        In order to help me seemy suffering and pain in a new light, I have to change my focus. Nowthat the unpleasant event has happened, what should my response be? Byconcentrating on my response, I am more likely to end up turning to God,trusting Him and blessing myself. How is this done? Mother Teresa advised,“Just accept whatever He gives and give whatever He takes with a big smile.” (TheWisdom of Mother Teresa, 42) Who can do that? I can’tdo it. It is impossible for me to accept with a smile this suffering andadversity. Whenever I say anything is impossible, I have inadvertentlyput a curse on myself! I have shut out all possibilities. But Imay be able to accept it with a smile, if I truly believe that “Godloves me” (John 15:9 TEV) and that “I am precious to Him” (Isaiah 43:4 TEV).How? This requires a change in mindset and heart-set because if I amprecious to God, then it stands to reason that He cares for me and knows mysuffering and hardships and that He has permitted, allowed, sent or given themto me. Furthermore, I will surely be able to smile if I turn to God andwholeheartedly believe that with God’s help all things are possible as, “Thisis impossible with human beings, but for God everything is possible” (Matthew19:26 TEV). When I embrace this truth, I bless myself. Therefore,I must trust that God has allowed the suffering to be a means of disciplinethrough which faith, love, patience and grace may be cultivated in my life. Godwill not allow my suffering and pain to be wasted and to be of no value to me.God will see me through my suffering and will carry me through it all but Ihave to keep reminding myself that, ”I have the strength to face allconditions by the power that Christ gives me.” (Philippians 4:13 TEV) And “Godhas given us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy1:7 TEV). This belief, this constant repetition will help me to face mysuffering and hardships in a new perspective. What I need to do is to turnto God, do my best under the circumstances and trust Him to turn itround for my good. God promises to take “all things” including suffering,abuses, evil things, and turn them round for good as “in all things God worksfor good with those who love Him”(Romans 8:28 TEV).
        But what is for our good? Thisis for the individual to pray and with God’s help to discover. He needs toconstantly search for himself answers to the questions: “What is the seed ofequivalent good in my suffering?” “What is the seed of equivalent benefit in myadversity?” Some good traits which we may develop can be more patience,more consideration, less arrogance and less resentment.
       
         Remember, all God requiresof us is to come to Him in prayer and trust Him completely. Trust Him to turnour lives around. He will not fail us because we can trust God “who alwayskeeps His promise.” (1 Peter 4:19 TEV) We do our part and give of our bestand He will do His part. When we turn to God, God will work WITH us to turnthe suffering and pain round for our good. The circumstances, the pain, thesuffering, the hardship or the adversity may still be there and may not changemuch BUT our response and internal attitude towards them will certainly change.Yes, we can take God at His Word that He will help us, comfort us,strengthen us and support us through our pain and suffering. Then, sufferingcan become a turning point from which we take our greatest leap forward in ourfaith in God. When we trust God, God gives us the hope and courage to looksuffering in the face and to go through it confidently with a renewed spiritand heart. Our suffering will, hopefully, turn us round to come in closertouch with the presence of God in our lives. The great secret in life is thatsuffering can become a source of new hope and new life. We will then learn toaccept it with a smile. This is indeed a blessing.
2. Our memory of events long after they happened
        How we recount these unpleasantexperiences is also vitally important. When we constantly recountthem:
·         with blaming God,
·         with blaming others,
·         with cursing our fate,
·         with anger,
·         with fear,
·         with regret,
·         with the feeling of beingvictimised,
        then we put these events underthe curse. Whenwe feel we are being punished, the feeling of being cursed comes easily. Wewill hear an inner voice calling us “bad,” “rotten,” “worthless,” “useless,”“doomed to sickness and death.” We darken our hearts and live our lives withbitterness and resentment. So, we unconsciously curse ourselves.
        But blessing is nothing morethan recounting positively these events:
· with what God has helped usto endure or overcome,
· with what patience ourfamily and friends have stood by us,
· with what we have learnt outof the events, and
· with hope, courage and love.
        Then we put these experiencesunder the blessing and we consciously bless ourselves.
        Henri Nouwen says, “In Latin, to bless is benedicere.The word ‘benediction’ that is used in many churches means literally:speaking (dictio) well (bene) or saying good things of someone.That speaks to me. I need to hear good things said of me, and I know how muchyou have the same need. Nowadays, we often say: ‘We have to affirm eachother.’ Without affirmations, it is hard to live well. To give someone ablessing is the most significant affirmation we can offer. It is more than aword of praise or appreciation; it is more than pointing out someone’s talentsor good deeds; it is more than putting someone in the light. To give ablessing is to affirm, to say ‘yes’ to a person’s Belovedness. And morethan that: to give a blessing creates the reality of which it speaks. There isa lot of mutual admiration in this world, just as there is a lot of mutualcondemnation. A blessing goes beyond the distinction between admiration orcondemnation, between virtues or vices, between good deeds or evil deeds. Ablessing touches the original goodness of the other and calls forth his or herBelovedness.” (Life of the Beloved, 56)
         Physical, mental or emotionalpain lived under the blessing is experienced in ways radically different fromphysical, mental or emotional pain lived under the curse. Even a smallburden, perceived as a sign of our worthlessness, can lead us to deepdepression. But, great and heavy burdens become light and easy when they arelived in the light of the blessing. What seems intolerable becomes achallenge. What seems a reason for despair becomes a source of hope. What seemspunishment becomes a gentle pruning from God. What seems rejection becomes away to a deeper communion with God. And so the great task becomes that ofallowing the blessing to touch us in our brokenness. Then our brokennesswill gradually come to be seen as an opening towards the full acceptance ofourselves as the Beloved children of God. This explains why true joy can beexperienced in the midst of great suffering. It is the joy of beingdisciplined, purified and pruned. Just as athletes who experience greatpain as they run the race can, at the same time, taste the joy of knowing thatthey are coming closer to their goal, so also can the Beloved experiencesuffering as a way to deeper communion with God. Here joy and sorrow are nolonger each other’s opposites, but have become the two sides of the same desireto grow to the fullness of the Beloved. For this blessed attitude to takeroot, we have to have deep faith that God loves us unconditionally and that weare the beloved children of God, very precious to Him.
        God sent Jesus to bless us,“God. . . sent Him to bless you” (Acts 3:26 NJB) and Jesus himself has blessedus with every spiritual blessing, “our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed uswith all the spiritual blessings” (Ephesians 1:3 NJB). Jesus shows us by HisWords and Deeds how to live a blessed life, “Blessed are those who do Hiscommandments” (Revelation 22:14 NKJV). Jesus creates a whole new blessedenvironment for us to dwell in and, ”how happy are those who hear the wordof God and obey it!"(Luke 11:28 TEV) We have to choose to stay in thatplace with Him and to hand His blessings on to others to make our blessingsgrow and multiply.
       
         Remember, no one is broughtto life through curses, blaming, gossips, accusations and punishment. But everyone is brought to life through blessings, encouragement, affirmations, praises,rewards and forgiveness.

From an enlightened blogger which in this case is not me.

Eucharistic Adoration and Christian Meditation in our Schools by Wendy M Louis

I wish to make a few comments as we consider doing Eucharistic Adoration and Christian Meditation in our Schools: The meaning of ‘Catholic School’ in Australia or France or almost anywhere else for that matter is that the majority of students and teachers are Catholic. Even in such schools where the majority are Catholic the introduction or practice of any form of prayer is voluntary. A.      On the question of Eucharistic Adoration, we note that parents should be the ones enabled and encouraged to pray with their children as first educators in the faith.If this is introduced in school the following points should be noted:1.       It is always advisable to bring make Eucharistic Adoration voluntary. It should not be scheduled and imposed on Catholics.2.       It would be very important to prepare the children / students adequately for such an event. This means that enough time has been given for appreciation of what the Eucharistic bread is and why we adore the bread in the monstrance.3.       The atmosphere of beauty, reverence and quiet should be pre-requisites for such a practice. Preferably a chapel away from disruptions.4.       The setting up and removal of the monstrance should be done under the supervision of a chaplain who in most cases should be a priest. Only with special permission may someone handle the Blessed Sacrament.5.       The notion of Adoration lends itself to silence, quiet music and very few words (preferably from Scripture). All forms of ‘devotional prayers’ should be avoided. B.      On the question of Christian Meditation please note the following points for your consideration:1.       The practice of Meditation has as its primary purpose to centre on God, in Jesus Christ. It helps one to have a much closer relationship with Christ and to rely on God in a very real way everyday.2.       Any reduction of this wonderful aim of meditation to ‘reducing stress’ or ‘creating children who are more focused’ etc is doing a disservice to the purpose of Christian Meditation. Please do not encourage participation based on outcomes that are material and related to academic success. The focus is a deeper union with God.3.       Christian Meditation has Jesus Christ as its intentional and explicit focus. We should be very careful not to gather children of all faiths and teach a generalized meditation which could end up being emptied of its Christian content.4.       If we want to have calmer, happier children of different faiths we can certainly introduce some times of quiet or silence with quiet music but we do not call it Meditation as this could be very confusing. I hope you find the above useful and if you have any further questions I will be happy to discuss them with you.Once again, I hope you are able to find teachers or parents to attend the workshop listed above.

Yours in Christ,
Wendy M Louis
ACCS ED

Notable Catholic Thinkers - Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

When churches are charities

Religious organisations which operate as charities have special features, hence a different approach may be needed in terms of regulation

By Willie Cheng

THE City Harvest Church court case has resurrected the periodic question: Why should a church, or for that matter, a religious institution, be accorded charity status?
The naysayer's reasoning goes like this: Charity is about helping society's poor and needy. Sure, churches can be charitable and give some money to those in need, but so do many other organisations which are not charities. Religion, after all, is fundamentally about God and spiritual matters.
A proper discourse on this subject however requires an appreciation of how the definitions of charity and church have evolved over the centuries.
Charity and church defined
SINGAPORE and about 60 other countries trace their legal heritage to England. Specifically, the legal definition of charity harks back to the Statute of Charitable Uses 1601 of Elizabethan England and its subsequent refinements in common law.
Chief among the common law cases was Income Tax Special Purpose Commissioners v Pemsel (1891) where four categories of charitable uses were defined:

• the relief of poverty;

• the advancement of education;

• the advancement of religion;

• other purposes beneficial to the community not falling under any of the preceding heads.

Over the years and across the world, the fourth category has been used to cover an increasing variety of causes such as vulnerable groups (the disabled, elderly, etc), animal welfare, environment, the arts and heritage. Singapore, for example, specifically added sports as a charitable cause in 2005.
One reason for including the advancement of religion as a charitable cause in early England was that much of the charitable work of providing for the poor and needy was being done by the church. Religion, in those days, meant the Church of England.
However, over the centuries, the religious scene has changed significantly. For starters, there has been a proliferation of and diversity in churches.
In the first few centuries after Jesus Christ died, Christianity was consolidated and became widespread with the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church. Starting in the 16th century, a movement by certain priests to reform the Catholic Church led to the formation of several Protestant denominations such as the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans and Methodists. In time, these denominations sprouted further subdivisions and sects, alongside untold numbers of independent 'non-denominational' churches. Larger ones with weekly attendances of 2,000 or more, such as City Harvest Church, are called 'megachurches'.
These churches may differ in opinion regarding theology and/or liturgical practice. But they mostly subscribe to Jesus Christ as the saviour and the Bible as God's word (even if they may interpret its contents differently).
Some critics consider independent churches shallow in theology while being deep in secular models of entertainment-based worship and marketing. For example, critics take issue with the doctrine of the 'prosperity gospel' some of these churches around the world subscribe to. The prosperity gospel teaches that financial blessings are the will of God and more donations to the church result in increased material prosperity to the individual. It is a philosophy which some theologians argue has no sound Biblical basis.
Another key distinction among the various forms of churches lies in their structures and leadership.
The Catholic Church and the mainstream Protestant denominations have fairly well-established organisational structures and processes for the formation and conduct of the clergy. For example, a Catholic priest is ordained only after an intensive period of scrutiny and formation of eight or more years, upon which he takes a vow of chastity, obedience and, sometimes, poverty. He is expected to live less than modestly. In Singapore, Catholic priests are given a stipend of $500 per month, with their board and lodging provided by the church.
On the other hand, most of the non-mainstream churches are essentially independent congregations, some loosely affiliated to each other, but mostly with their own rules and practices. Many of these churches do not have the same kind of rigorous institutionalised approach to selecting and developing leaders. Indeed, leaders often emerge by virtue of their charisma and ability to win followers. It is the congregations, rather than institutional rules, which determine leaders and lifestyle expectations of the leaders.
Should such charismatic leaders have flawed characters, they can do untold damage. In extreme cases, such organisations are classified as cults. Cults are banned in Singapore, but not in some countries. Yet, by granting charity status to such cults or near-cults as some countries do, regulators confer on them tax benefits and, more significantly, legitimacy.
Keep religious groups out of charities?
GIVEN the historical broadening of the definition of charity, it would be, in my opinion, wrong to narrowly target religion for exclusion as a charitable cause.
Yes, (most) religions are about God and the afterlife, but they are also fundamentally about goodwill and bringing out the goodness in man. Which is to say: they are about the community good.
If religion is excluded - say, we revert to the layman's notion of charity as helping the poor and needy - we need to also exclude sports, the arts, heritage, animals, education and health care. We would, in fact, exclude the whole gamut of other causes of 'community good' that have grown over time.
At the same time, we also need to recognise that there are churches and there are churches. What then do we do about the errant religious organisations that may not be extreme enough to be classified as cults (and thus be banned) but, in all other respects, qualify to be charities? The default answer is: Treat it as any other errant social service charity or sports charity.
In other words, have a clear set of rules and regulations for how charities are to be governed and managed. And if there is a breach by any of the charities or its personnel, throw the book at them.
Special features of religious groups
HOWEVER, the application of such rules and regulations to religious charities is not so straightforward. There are three related and distinctive features of religious organisations that regulators have to grapple with.
The first is the basis of donations. An inviolable principle in the charity sector is 'donor intent'. This means respecting the basis for which a donation is given. In the case of religious institutions, most believers give with a blanket fiat for their leaders to do with the donation as is deemed fit rather than for specific or even general charitable purposes.
The second is evangelisation. The missions of most religious organisations include evangelisation, not just of the converted, but of the broader community. Evangelisation sits uncomfortably with regulators in the more secular countries. Yet, it can be argued that evangelisation is no different from, say, the advocacy of other charities, such as the healthy lifestyles (to avoid certain diseases) promoted by health-care charities like the Singapore Heart Foundation and Sata CommHealth.
The third is the leadership of these organisations. The governance and management of religious institutions tend to be bound together, rather than be separated, as is considered best practices by secular bodies. Religious leaders also have a sway over their followers which can sometimes be seen by regulators and outside parties as bordering on the irrational.
The interplay of these three factors has challenged regulators when they seek to implement a single sector-wide approach to regulating charities.
In Singapore, the same set of regulations is applied to all charities, regardless of sub-sectors (for example, the religious, social service and arts sub-sectors).
There is, however, differentiated treatment in the Charity Code of Governance based on the size of the charities: the bigger the charities, the more controls and scrutiny are needed.
As highlighted above, there are unique aspects of religious charities, as there could be for charities in other sub-sectors.
It might be timely to review these sub-sectorial differences for a more targeted and meaningful approach to charity governance and regulation.
The writer, a former partner at management and technology consulting firm Accenture, is author of Doing Good Well. He sits on the boards of several commercial and non-profit organisations, including Singapore Press Holdings, Singapore Institute of Directors, and Catholic and secular charities.

Charisma and its pitfalls

      What's so bad about charisma?

Trouble happens when followers cede independence

Published on Jul 7, 2012

 

By Jeremy Au Yong, Political Correspondent

THERE was an interesting study on charisma conducted in 1998, just after Steve Jobs returned to Apple but before he built his reputation as a messianic chief executive.

Then, researchers asked 150 students to allocate $10,000 across three possible investments: a mutual fund, money market certificates or Apple shares.

The students were given similar sets of financial information with one big difference. Half the students were shown a video of Jobs making a presentation at a trade show with his trademark flair, while the rest were not.
Researchers wanted to see if the simple addition of Jobs' charisma would have any impact on the investment decisions. The results shed some light on the impact charisma can have.

The arrest of Kong Hee and four other leaders of the City Harvest Church last week for alleged financial wrongdoings has once again drawn scrutiny to the notion of charismatic leadership.

Without commenting on his innocence or guilt - that is now a matter before the courts - his case does reignite debate over the potential dangers of charismatic leaders.

It is a conversation Singapore society has had before. After the cases involving former National Kidney Foundation (NKF) chief T.T. Durai or former Ren Ci head Ming Yi, some concluded that there was a need to be warier of the charismatic among us, because charisma is like a super power that is deadly in the wrong hands.

But if people are aware of the risk, why do they leave themselves vulnerable? Why do they not learn their lesson? And what exactly is it about charisma that seems to disable even the best defences?

Like any super power, there is nothing intrinsically bad about charisma. The ability to attract people and inspire them to follow you is actually very valuable.

For every Jim Jones, the charismatic leader responsible for the mass suicide of over 900 people, there is a Steve Jobs or a Richard Branson.

In fact, an argument could be made that charismatic leaders actually saved many companies because they pushed through change that was needed.

The problem with charisma does not lie with just the charismatic leader. Rather, the trouble tends to stem from how charisma changes the way the followers relate to the leader and the organisation.

Political scientist Marty Linsky once wrote that effective leadership meant 'disappointing followers at a rate they can absorb'.

He reasoned that a leader who disappointed his followers too much would be turfed out while one who did not disappoint at all was not leading anyone anywhere.

The idea implies a sort of social contract between a leader and a follower. In the absence of charisma, this contract has to include a shared sense of mission. The follower goes along with the leader because he believes the leader is taking him where he wants to go.

If the leader then starts to head off in a different direction, that social contract is violated and the leader may find he has lost his followers.

This arrangement, however, can be eroded by the presence of a a magnetic personality. A very charismatic leader does not have the same social contract. He does not need to be on the same page as his followers.

In this situation, people follow not because of some aligned sense of purpose. They are there because they are drawn to this outgoing, dynamic, passionate person.

One clear sign that an organisation has come under the spell of a charismatic leader is a sharp distinction between the way he is viewed inside and outside the organisation.

Many outside the NKF seethed when Mr Durai's lavish lifestyle came to light, so much so that the building was vandalised.

Yet, when he resigned shortly after, NKF staff members gave him a grand, emotional send-off. At the end of his farewell speech, they gave him a standing ovation.

'I've seen him work. It's his passion. He works seven days a week, by choice, for a larger cause,' a manager was reported as saying that day.

All this despite the court proceeding just days earlier showing that Mr Durai had, among other things, travelled on first class flights and had a gold-plated tap installed in his office toilet.

The results of the Steve Jobs survey give an insight into how powerful the effect can be. The group that watched a 20-minute video of Jobs invested on average three times more in Apple shares than the group that did not.

They all had the same facts, but the sheer force of personality coloured their perceptions of those facts.

The charismatic leader can thus disempower his followers. They do things not because they have reasoned that it is the right thing to do but because they have ceded a lot of independence to the person asking them to do it.

Suddenly, there is no amount of disappointment they cannot absorb.

And often, not enough attention is paid to this supporting cast. When we look back on the NKF now, we tell the story of how Mr Durai compromised the organisation. But the story is not complete without including the role of his close associates.

Even if we argue that he put them there, he could not have achieved that manoeuvre without others watching it and choosing to look the other way.

To understand that is to see that no amount of new safeguards against a leader will ever be sufficient if the followers are weak. The bars of the cell may be thick but they are useless if the inmates hold all the keys.

And it is in the very nature of charisma to create weak followers.

Thus, in trying to protect organisations from abuse, what is needed may not just be more regulations or more procedures.

Instead, it is about making sure we never turn a blind eye to our own reasoning just because a flashy leader passionately and articulately tells us to.

The Power of Powerlessness

RON ROLHEISER, OMI Speaker, Columnist and Author

2012-05-06


There are different kinds of power and different kinds of authority. There is military power, muscle power, political power, economic power, moral power, charismatic power, and psychological power, among other things. There are different kinds of authority too: We can be bitterly forced into acquiescing to certain demands or we can be gently persuaded into accepting them. Power and authority are not all of a kind.
Imagine four persons in a room: The first is a powerful dictator who rules a country. His word commands armies and his shifting moods intimidate subordinates. He wields a brutal power. Next to him sits a gifted athlete at the peak of his physical prowess, a man whose quickness and strength have few equals. His skills are a graceful power for which he is much admired and envied. The third person is a rock star whose music and charisma can electrify an audience and fill a room with a soulful energy. Her face is on billboards and she is a household name. That's still another kind of power. Finally, we have too in the room a newborn, a baby, lying in its crib, seemingly without any power or strength whatsoever, unable to even ask for what it needs. Which of these is ultimately the most powerful?
The irony is that the baby ultimately wields the greatest power. The athlete could crush it, the dictator could kill it, and the rock star could out-glow it in sheer dynamism, but the baby has a different kind of power. It can touch hearts in a way that a dictator, an athlete, or a rock star cannot. Its innocent, wordless presence, without physical strength, can transform a room and a heart in a way that guns, muscle, and charisma cannot. We watch our language and actions around a baby, less so around athletes and rock stars. The powerlessness of a baby touches us at a deeper moral place.
And this is the way we find and experience God's power here on earth, sometimes to our great frustration, and this is the way that Jesus was deemed powerful during his lifetime. The entire Gospels make this clear, from beginning to end. Jesus was born as a baby, powerless, and he died hanging helplessly on a cross with bystanders mocking his powerlessness. Yet both his birth and his death manifest the kind of power upon which we can ultimately build our lives.
The Gospels describe Jesus' power and authority in exactly this way. In Greek, the original language of the Gospels, we find three words for power or authority. We easily recognize the first two: energy and dynamic. There is a power in energy, in physical health and muscle, just as there is a power in being dynamic, in dynamite, in having the power to generate energy; but when the Gospels speak of Jesus as "having great power" and as having a power beyond that of other religious figures, they do not use the words energetic or dynamic. They use a third word, EXOUSIA, which might be best rendered as VULNERABILITY. Jesus' real power was rooted in a certain vulnerability, like the powerlessness of a child.
This isn't an easy concept to grasp since our idea of power is normally rooted in the opposite, namely, the notion that power lies in the ability to overwhelm, not underwhelm, others. And yet we understand this, at least somewhat, in our experience of babies, who can overpower us precisely by their powerlessness. Around a baby, as most every mother and father has learned, we not only watch our language and try not to have bitter arguments; we also try to be better, more loving persons. Metaphorically, a baby has the power to do an exorcism. It can cast out the demons of self-absorption and selfishness in us. That's why Jesus could cast out certain demons that others could not.
And that's how God's power forever lies within our world and within our lives, asking for our patience. Christ, as Annie Dillard says, is always found in our lives just as he was originally found, a helpless baby in the straw who must be picked up and nurtured into maturity. But we are forever wanting something else, namely, a God who would come and clean up the world and satisfy our thirst for justice by showing some raw muscle power and banging some heads here and now. We are impatient with quiet, moral power that demands infinite patience and a long-term perspective. We want a hero, someone with the blazing guns of a Hollywood superhero but the heart of a Mother Theresa. The guns of the world blasting away evil, that's what we want from our God, not the power of a baby lying mute and helpless against the cruel powers of our time. Like the Israelites facing the Philistines, we are reluctant to send a shepherd boy against an ironclad giant. We want divine power in iron, muscles, guns, and charisma.
But that's not the way intimacy, peace, and God are found.

An Earthy View of the Communion of Saints

RON ROLHEISER, OMI Speaker, Columnist and Author

2012-04-29

In his autobiography Nikos Kazantzakis tells the story behind his famous book, Zorba the Greek. Zorba is partially fiction, partly history.
After trying unsuccessfully to write a book on Nietzsche, Kazantzakis experienced a certain emotional breakdown and returned to his native Crete for some convalescence. While there he met a man of incredible energy and vitality. The Zorba-character in the book is based on this man's life; never before in his life had Kazantzakis been so taken by the life and energy of another human being. But mortality doesn't make allowances for that. Zorba eventually died and his death very much disillusioned Kazantzakis: How can such exceptional vitality simply die? And what happens to it, does it simply disappear as if it had never been? What happens at death to all the color, energy, life, love, and humor that a human being has embodied?
Kazantzakis wrote Zorba the Greek as an attempt to give some immortality to the wonderful energy that an exceptional man had embodied. Zorba cannot be dead. It made for a great book and a great movie, but is that really what makes for immortality? Does simply remembering somebody or publicly celebrating his life make him alive? And when someone dies, what does happen to that very unique and wonderful energy, vitality, love, color, and humor that a person embodied during his or her life?
Several days ago, I was at a wake service for a woman whom I had never met. The formal prayer service was followed by a half-dozen eulogies delivered by her family. They were wonderful, warm, witty, colorful, and full of humor. As these stories were told she became alive again to everyone in the church. We all smiled and laughed and the sadness of her leaving was eclipsed for the moment (and partly forever) as the color and vitality of her life were again made alive for us. And we weren't just remembering her. We were reminding each other that she was still with us.
It's the same for everyone who dies. They remain with us in more than memory. And it's not just some purified spirit of theirs, washed clean in death, that remains. Their unique color stays too: I think, for instance, of my own family. We've had to mourn the loss of a number of our members, but we're not only nurtured by the gift that each person's life and virtue was for us, we're still fed by the unique color each of them embodied. They are still with, as is their color. Our family legends abound about those whom we have lost: stories about my dad's unique way of combining the Serenity Prayer with Murphy's Law in an exasperated expression: "Just now!"; about my mother's incapacity to find a place to begin a story without having to first go back to Genesis - "In the beginning"; about my deceased sister's love of chocolate and her concomitant love for deflating what was pompous; about my deceased brother's proclivity to lecture the entire planet on social justice; about my deceased brother-in-law's love for cooking sausages and laughingly inquiring about the aesthetic condition of your suspenders; and about a deceased Uncle's habit of lighting up a cigarette and getting a mischievous gleam in his eye as a prelude to telling a thoroughly wicked story. The list could go on and on because the stories of the color in the lives of our deceased loved ones do go on and on.
So what does happen at death to that very unique energy, vitality, color, and humor that a person has embodied? Alfred North Whitehead suggests that it's immortalized in the "consequent nature" of God. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin assures us that nothing will be lost and everything will be in some way preserved, right down to the lives of our pets. Our Christian doctrine on the Communion of Saints tells that our loved ones are still alive and that someday we will be face to face with them again
I don't doubt the truth of these assertions, but they can seem pretty abstract when our hearts are saddened and aching at the memory of a loved one who has died. Being alive in our memories is not a sufficient form of immortality and being alive in God's memory can seem too abstract to bring much consolation. I don't doubt that our loved ones are alive in God's "consequent nature" or that they are alive inside the communion of saints, but I believe something more, based on how our memories of their unique color affects and nurtures us here on this side.
I believe that what they so wonderfully and uniquely embodied here on earth is still going on, happening on the other side. I suspect there are more than white clouds, harps, and floating angels in heaven, but that heaven is rife with wit, color, humor, and thoroughly wicked stories because whenever we recall these about our deceased loved ones their memory turns warm and nurturing.

US Project to assess schools' Catholic Identity

Foundation launches project to help schools assess Catholic identity

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) -- The Rochester-based Catholic Education Foundation has initiated a program to help Catholic grade schools and high schools evaluate their Catholic identity. Called the Catholic School Identity Assessment, it is a diagnostic tool to help schools spot their strengths and weaknesses, according to Father Peter Stravinskas, the foundation's executive director. "Catholic identity in Catholic schools was taken for granted when the faculty and administrators were almost exclusively clergy and religious," he said, but "with the heavy involvement of lay teachers and administrators that has not always been a given." The assessment was originally created for Catholic high schools and then last year some pastors and principals said they wanted something like that for their grade schools, the priest said in a recent interview with Catholic News Service. "That the identity issue would not be addressed sufficiently is not malevolence," Father Stravinskas said. Rather, it often results because some lay administrators and teachers "either never went to Catholic school themselves," he said, or they attended "in an era when Catholic identity was waning." He said the foundation's assessment tool is an opportunity to discuss the subject. "Even just by asking the questions, one already has started to address the identity issue," he said. Father Stravinskas said the process starts with a self-assessment by the school. Next comes an onsite visitation by a team of three or five people put together by the foundation (team size depends on the school's size). Team members visit classrooms; interview students, faculty and parents; observe interactions at the school; and write up an evaluation. "Atmosphere, mood, attitudes, like charity" are among what a team will observe at a school, he told CNS. Teams also consider the physical environment, look for Catholic art on display, gauge the reaction of students to the presence of clergy and religious and see whether prayer is a normal part of school life, "not simply at a once-a-month Mass." "Is there Catholic 'air' in the institution," he said.

Holy And Unholy Fear

Holy And Unholy Fear

2012-03-25
By RON ROLHEISER, OMI Speaker, Columnist and Author


Not all fear is created equal, at least not religiously. There's a fear that's healthy and good, a sign of maturity and love. There's also a fear that's bad, that blocks maturity and love. But this needs explanation.

There's a lot of misunderstanding about fear inside of religious circles, especially around the Scriptural passage that says that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Too often texts like these, as well as religion in general, have been used to instil an unhealthy fear inside of people in the name of God. We need to live in "holy fear", but holy fear is a very particular kind of fear that should not be confused with fear as we normally understand it.

What is "holy fear"? What kind of fear is healthy? What kind of fear triggers wisdom?

Holy fear is love's fear, namely, the kind of fear that is inspired by love. It's a fear based upon reverence and respect for a person or a thing we love. When we genuinely love another person we will live inside of a healthy anxiety, a worry that our actions should never grossly disappoint, disrespect, or violate the other person. We live in holy fear when we are anxious not to betray a trust or disrespect someone. But this is very different from being afraid of somebody or being afraid of being punished.

Bad power and bad authority intimidate and make others afraid of them. God is never that kind of power or authority. God entered our world as a helpless infant and God's power still takes that same modality. Babies don't intimidate, even as they inspire holy fear. We watch our words and our actions around babies not because they threaten us, but rather because their very helplessness and innocence inspire an anxiety in us that makes us want to be at our best around them.

The Gospels are meant to inspire that kind of fear. God is Love, a benevolent power, a gracious authority, not someone to be feared. Indeed God is the last person we need to fear. Jesus came to rid us of fear. Virtually every theophany in scripture (an instance where God appears) begins with the words: "Do not be afraid!" What frightens us does not come from God.

In the Jewish scriptures, the Christian Old Testament, King David is revealed as the person who best grasped this. Among all the figures in the Old Testament, including Moses and the great prophets, David is depicted as the figure that best exemplified what it means to walk on this earth in the image and likeness of God, even though at a point he grossly abuses that trust. Despite his great sin, it is to David, not to Moses or the prophets, to whom Jesus attributes his lineage. David is the Christ-figure in the Old Testament. He walked in holy fear of God, and never in an unhealthy fear.

To cite just one salient example: The Book of Kings recounts an incident where David is, one day, returning from battle with his soldiers. His troops are hungry. The only available food is the bread in the temple. David asks for that and is told that it is only to be consumed by the priests in sacred ritual. He answers the priest to this effect: "I'm the King, placed here by God to act responsibly in his name. We don't ordinarily ask for the temple bread, but this is an exception, a matter of urgency, the soldiers need food, and God would want us to responsibly do this." And so he took the temple bread and gave it to his soldiers. In the Gospels, Jesus praises this action by David and asks us to imitate it, telling us that we are not made for the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath is made for us.

David understood what is meant by that. He had discerned that God is not so much a law to be obeyed as a gracious presence under which we are asked to creatively live. He feared God, but as one fears someone in love, with a "holy fear", not a blind, legalistic one.

A young mother once shared this story with me: Her six year-old had just started school. She had taught him to kneel by his bed each night before going to sleep and recite a number of night prayers. One night, shortly after starting school, he hopped into bed without first kneeling in prayer. Surprised by this, she challenged him with the words: "Don't you pray anymore?" His reply: "No, I don't. My teacher at school told us that we are not supposed to pray. She said that we're supposed to talk to God ... and tonight I'm tired and have nothing to say!"

Like King David, he too had discerned what it really means to be God's child and how God is not so much a law to be obeyed as a gracious presence who desires a mutually loving relationship, one of holy fear.

Vatican approves blessing rite for unborn children

April 9, 2012 4:15 pm
Catholic News Service

Just in time for Mother’s Day, U.S. Catholics parishes will be able to celebrate the new Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb.

The Vatican has given its approval to publication in English and Spanish of the new rite, which was approved by the U.S. bishops in November 2008, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced March 26.

The blessing will be printed in both languages in a combined booklet.

“I can think of no better day to announce this news than on the feast of the Annunciation, when we remember Mary’s ‘yes’ to God and the incarnation of that child in her womb that saved the world,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

The blessing was prepared to support parents awaiting the birth of their child, to encourage parish prayers for and recognition of the gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human life within society.

It can be offered within the context of Mass as well as outside of Mass, and for an individual mother, a couple or a group of expectant parents.

“We wanted to make this announcement as soon as possible so that parishes might begin to look at how this blessing might be woven into the fabric of parish life,” said Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship. “Eventually the new blessing will be included in the Book of Blessings when that text is revised.”

The Vatican approval, or “recognitio,” came from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

The blessing originated when then-Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Knoxville, Tenn., (now archbishop of Louisville, Ky.) asked the pro-life committee to see if such a blessing existed. When none was found, the committee prepared a text and submitted it to the divine worship committee in March 2008.

The blessing includes intercessions “for our government and civic leaders that they may perform their duties with justice and compassion while respecting the gift of human life” and “for a safe and healthy pregnancy for all expectant mothers and for a safe delivery for their children.”

It also expresses concern “for children who are unwanted, unloved, abandoned or abused, that the Lord will inspire his people to protect and care for them.”

If used as a blessing outside Mass, the service includes introductory prayers, Scripture readings, intercessions, the actual blessing of the mother and child, and a concluding rite.

“May almighty God, who has created new life, now bless the child in your womb,” the blessing says. “The Lord has brought you the joy of motherhood: May he bless you with a safe and healthy pregnancy. You thank the Lord today for the gift of your child: May he bring you and your child one day to share in the unending joys of heaven.”

There are also optional prayers for fathers, for families and for the parish community.

English nurse wins clash over conscience rights without going to court

Written by Simon Caldwell, Catholic News Service
Tuesday, 03 April 2012 13:02

MANCHESTER, England - A Catholic nurse in central England has won a battle over her right to conscientiously object to involvement in abortions.

The nurse, who asked not to be named because of fear of reprisal from her hospital employer, convinced National Health Service managers that her right to conscientious objection was protected by law.

Without anyone going to court, the managers dropped their threat to dismiss the nurse because of her refusal to work in an abortion clinic attached to the hospital in the British Midlands, she told Catholic News Service April 2.


Managers pointed out to her that she was not being required to perform an abortion but only to prepare women for the procedure, she explained, and that other Catholics -- including a eucharistic minister at the local parish -- were working in the abortion clinic.

"I said, 'I can't be responsible for other people's beliefs. I can only speak for myself,'" said the nurse, a married mother of two in her early 40s.

"I stood by that," she added. "I said, 'I am not happy to do it and I'm standing by my principles.'"

The woman's ordeal began when she began working additional hours in 2011 after her 3-year-old son started attending nursery school.

The nurse said she was not told that she would be required to fill in for abortion clinic staff taking time off and that within two months her name appeared on the clinic's roster.

When she refused to work in the clinic, she was told by managers that she faced dismissal.

She said she turned for advice to her parish priest, who referred her to the Thomas More Legal Centre in Warrington, England. The center offers free legal assistance to Christians claiming to be victims of discrimination and harassment because of their faith.

Neil Addison, the center's director, said he wrote to hospital officials explaining that the nurse's conscience rights were protected under the 1967 Abortion Act, and officials quickly backed down.

He also said that the woman's view that human life begins at conception was a "philosophical" belief protected by the 2010 Equality Act and also by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Any attempt either to pressure the nurse to change her mind or to suggest to her that her career prospects might suffer would breach laws against harassment and discrimination, Addison said.

The nurse resolved the case less than a month after a Scottish court ruled that the Abortion Act did not allow two Catholic midwives to opt out of supervising late-term abortions at a hospital in Glasgow.

In an April 2 email to CNS, Addison said together the two cases showed that the right of health care workers to object to involvement in abortions for reasons of conscience was under pressure in the United Kingdom.

Christ's resurrection changed the world, pope says at Easter

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Light and darkness, truth and lies, hope and despair are in a constant battle in the world, but with his death and resurrection Jesus conquered sin and death for all time, Pope Benedict XVI said on Easter.

"If Jesus is risen, then -- and only then -- has something truly new happened, something that changes the state of humanity and the world," the pope told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square before giving his Easter blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world).

With the sun shining on the square -- transformed into a garden with 42,000 flowers, flowering plants, shrubs and trees -- Pope Benedict began the celebration of the morning Mass April 8 just 10 hours after having finished celebrating the three-hour long Easter vigil in St. Peter's Basilica.

In his Easter message at the end of the morning Mass, the pope said every Christian can share the experience of Mary Magdalene, who was the first to encounter the risen Jesus on Easter morning.

The encounter "lets us experience all God's goodness and truth," he said. The risen Lord "frees us from evil not in a superficial and fleeting way, but sets us free radically, heals us completely and restores our dignity."

The resurrection means that Jesus belongs not just to the past, but is present today, giving hope and comfort to all those who suffer, the pope said.

Pope Benedict offered special prayers and encouragement to Christians persecuted for their faith and to the people of the Middle East, asking members of all religious and ethnic groups to work together for the common good and respect for human rights.

"Particularly in Syria, may there be an end to bloodshed and an immediate commitment to the path of respect, dialogue and reconciliation" after months of violent battles between Syria's government and opposition forces.

The pope also prayed for the people of Iraq, for Israelis and Palestinians, for those suffering famine and violence in the Horn of Africa, and for those suffering from conflict in Mali and in Sudan and South Sudan.

At the end of his message, he wished people a happy Easter in 65 languages, including Mongolian, Hebrew, Hindi, Chinese, Maori, Esperanto and Latin.

In English, he said: "May the grace and joy of the risen Christ be with you all."

At the Easter vigil the night before, the pope welcomed eight adults into the Catholic Church. Among those he baptized and confirmed was Jason N. Emerick, a 36-year-old man from the Archdiocese of Boston. Two of the catechumens were from Germany and the others were from Turkmenistan, Italy, Albania, Slovakia and Cameroon.

Light, fire and candles were the symbols highlighted during the pope's vigil.

Like Easter vigils throughout the world, the Mass began with the lighting of a fire. In the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica there was a large brazier full of blazing coals; an assistant lit a small taper from the coals and handed it to the pope so he could light the towering Easter candle.

A deacon carried the candle to the entrance of the darkened basilica and chanted, "The light of Christ."

The smaller candle carried by Pope Benedict was lit and he got onto his mobile platform to be pushed up the aisle of the basilica in silence and what should have been darkness. Although announcers -- in multiple languages -- had asked the crowd not to use flashes on their cameras during the procession, bursts of light accompanied the pope toward the altar.

However, the cameras could not destroy the impact of the candles held by members of the congregation being lighted one by one and the glow spreading throughout the world's largest church.

In his homily, Pope Benedict said "to say that God created light means that God created the world as a space for knowledge and truth, as a space for encounter and freedom, as a space for good and love."

The light of Easter, he said, proclaims forever the fact that "life is stronger than death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies."

The world needs the light of Christ and the light of faith, because darkness always attempts to obscure people's vision of what is good and evil and what the purpose of their life is, the pope said.

"Today we can illuminate our cities so brightly that the stars of the sky are no longer visible," he said. "Is this not an image of the problems caused by our version of enlightenment?

"With regard to material things, our knowledge and our technical accomplishments are legion," he said. But when it comes to the more important matters, such as "the things of God and the question of good," people can no longer see them.

"Faith, then, which reveals God's light to us, is the true enlightenment, enabling God's light to break into our world, opening our eyes to the true light," he said.

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Contributing to this story was Francis X. Rocca at the Vatican.

END

Jesuit seminarian took photographs of Titanic's infamous voyage

By Sarah MacDonald
Catholic News ServiceDUBLIN (CNS) -- Commemorations of the sinking of the Titanic 100 years ago will put the spotlight on a young Irish priest whose photographs are some of the only surviving images of life onboard the liner on its first and last voyage.

Jesuit Father Frank Browne, 1880-1960, became a prominent documentary photographer and a much-decorated chaplain in the British army in World War I.

A collection of his photographs, "Father Browne's Titanic Album" has been reprinted to mark the centenary of the demise of the massive liner, which was constructed in Belfast, Ireland, and was believed to be unsinkable.

More than 1,500 people died when it sank April 15, 1912.

The new edition of the book is edited by Jesuit Father Edward O'Donnell, and the foreword is written by Robert Ballard, who first located the ship's wreckage in September 1985, the same month as a chance finding of 42,000 of Father Browne's photographs in the basement of the Jesuits' headquarters in Dublin.

Frank Browne lived an eventful life. As a novice he met Pope Pius X in 1909 when he accompanied his uncle, Bishop Robert Browne of Cloyne, to a private audience at the Vatican. He was also a university classmate of Irish writer James Joyce, who featured the young seminarian as "Mr. Browne the Jesuit" in his masterpiece "Finnegans Wake."

In 1912, the Jesuit novice was still three years from ordination. Because of a gift from his uncle, he was able to experience the Titanic's luxurious accommodation in the initial stages of its maiden voyage, from Southampton, England, to Cherbourg, France, and on to Queenstown, Ireland.

While onboard, the self-taught photographer managed to obtain pictures of the first-class accommodation and dining rooms. He also captured the gymnasium, the library and passengers enjoying a stroll on the promenade, as well as many passengers in third class, recording some of those who would later perish in the freezing waters of the Atlantic. He took the last image of the Titanic's captain, Edward Smith.

Father Browne's images of the ship's accommodation and passengers have been pored over by maritime historians, engineers and filmmakers seeking answers to a tragedy that still grips the public's imagination. Hollywood film director James Cameron used his photographs to re-create sets for his blockbuster movie.

The Jesuit's image of 6-year-old Robert Douglas Spedden playing with his spinning top on the promenade, watched by his father Frederic, is one of the most famous of the collection. Cameron re-created the image in the film.

The young Jesuit photographed the Titanic leaving port for the last time as it left Queenstown, in County Cork, for New York. He could have been onboard: An American couple he befriended on the ship offered to fund the final leg of the journey to New York.

From the Titanic, he sent a telegram to his provincial in Dublin to request permission. However, a frosty telegram awaited him in Queenstown: "Get off that ship."

When news of the Titanic's disastrous fate reached Father Browne, he folded the telegram and put it into his wallet and kept it there for the rest of his life. He later said it was the only time holy obedience had saved a life.

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Editor's Note: "Father Browne's Titanic Album," edited by E.E. O'Donnell (2nd edition 2011), is published by Messenger Publications, www.messenger.ie.